


Make It Work

by Perkalil



Category: Firebringer - Team StarKid
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Enemies to Friends, Fake Blood, Midterms are hell, Swearing, Zazzalil loves Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 17:33:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21183284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perkalil/pseuds/Perkalil
Summary: Zazzalil is super excited for the spooky season, but easily forgets that it's also midterm week. That won't blow over well with a certain goal-oriented, overachieving roommate of hers.College AU Oneshot





	Make It Work

**Author's Note:**

> I definitely did NOT push this out of me before the upcoming holiday just because it was sitting in my incomplete folder. Nope.

Zazzalil ran up the steps to get to her apartment, her backpack hanging off one shoulder and very close to slipping down her arm and into the abyss. She reached her door and fumbled for her keys, her breaths coming in excited pants. It had finally come in and Keeri had put it in her room before she left for classes for the day. Zazzalil flung open the door and slammed it behind her, not bothering to lock it. Someone would be home eventually, they can lock it after themselves.

Zazzalil dumped her shoes and jacket off in the front hallway and slid across the wood floors to her door. She lived in this apartment with three other girls, and they all had different majors. Zazz was Engineering, Keeri was a Double major in Dance and Agriculture (the last one was to appease her parents but she was failing the program miserably), Emberly was majoring in Culinary Arts and minoring in Botany and Art, and their fourth roommate…

Was standing in the doorway to her room, right across from Zazzalil. Zazzalil skidded to a stop before she crashed into a wall, or worse, Jemilla. 

Jemilla was a double major in Higher Education and Philosophy, with a double minor in political science and business administration. She had had a few classes with Emberly and became sort of friends, and when Tiblyn backed out of the lease they needed someone fast to fill in her spot. Emberly had assured Keeri and Zazzalil that having her around would help; she was a very organized person and she could keep them all from starving and not showering. When Zazzalil asked her why so many different majors and minors, Jemilla had lectured her about how important it was to be a well-rounded individual. Zazzalil hadn’t even picked a major when she had asked.

“Zazzalil, would you like to tell me why Keeri dragged a box the size of your door into your room?” Jemilla leaned against the doorframe and looked down on Zazz. Zazzalil didn’t mind that people looked down on her, most had to with how short she was. But she could feel the condescending passive-aggressiveness coming off of Jemilla in waves and was immediately irritated.

“It’s not really any of your business, J-Mills,” She grinned wickedly as she spoke; she knew how much Jemilla hated nicknames. “What I buy with my money stays between me, the credit card company, and the three glasses of wine I had when I hit ‘add to cart’.”

Jemilla rolled her eyes and Zazzalil took it as a victory. The shorter woman turned to go inside her room and rip the package apart but was stopped by Jemilla. “Zazzalil, I just want you to promise that whatever you bought will not be disturbing me or anyone else in the apartment. It’s midterm week next week and I need to study.”

“Cross my heart, J-Mills. It’s not going to bother anyone.” Jemilla nodded and scooped up her bag, leaving the apartment with a goodbye. Zazzalil grinned and grabbed a box cutter, ready to get to work.

* * *

Jemilla trudged up the stairs, exhausted from her afternoon and evening classes keeping her running around campus. She always had at least four classes a day, and when she wasn’t in class she was doing work for the classes she had the rest of the week. She’d never admit to anyone that having two majors and two minors was starting to be too much, but she did wish that there could be some sort of a rest day where she had absolutely nothing to do. She would like to say that some weekends were less stressful than others, but she couldn’t because of Zazzalil. 

She never seemed to run out of energy, and whenever the Engineering student wasn’t working on classwork, which was almost always, she was messing with their electronics or their furniture to try and make them ‘better’. It always ended in disaster, especially the time she had somehow gotten their dishwasher and garbage disposal linked together. It had been a solid week of checking to see the dishwasher was fully closed before turning on the garbage disposal, otherwise, water would spray all over the kitchen floor. Jemilla didn’t even know how to start apologizing to the super. 

Jemilla was astounded by how reckless Zazzalil could be, and how unbothered she seemed by any of the consequences of her actions. They were polar opposites and got on each other's nerves so often Jemilla had considered finding another apartment. But, she had signed the lease with them and would stick with it until it expired. 

She got to their door and slipped the key in the lock, turning it carefully. She had heard Zazzalil complaining to Keeri about how she had snapped a couple keys because she turned it too quickly. Jemilla went to open the door and grunted in surprise when it wouldn’t budge. She tried again and realized that she had effectively locked the door, and someone inside had left it unlocked. She bit back a growl of frustration and put the key in again, whipping open the door when it unlocked. Whatever reminder she had been crafting about telling the group chat when the door was unlocked died in her lungs when she saw their apartment.

It was covered floor to ceiling and wall to wall in all sorts of Halloween decorations. Fake cobwebs hung from the ceiling and off of picture frames and fans, and the walls had all sorts of Halloween movie posters hanging on them. Skeleton statues and ceramic ghosts and spiders were on every flat surface, and Halloween themed candles were lit to cast the apartment in an eerie glow. Jemilla could see plastic carved pumpkins sitting at the edge of the hallway where their rooms were with fake tea lights glowing in their mouths. She stepped carefully through the cobwebs and found more draped across the entire hall. Jemilla flicked on the hallway light, which had been turned off, and screamed louder than she probably ever had before in her life.

In the middle of the hall was Zazzalil, with fake blood pooled off and around her neck. There was a message in blood on the off-beige wall reading ‘get fucked, J-Mills’, and bloody handprints on the wooden floor and on the walls. Jemilla leaned against the hallway clutching her chest as Zazzalil curled into herself with laughter. The shorter woman stood up, wiping some of the fake blood off her cheek with a thumb. She looked up at Jemilla with a brightness in her eyes, waiting for her response. Once Jemilla could feel her heartbeat slow down enough to talk, she let Zazzalil have it. 

“Zazzalil, what the HELL! Why would you do something like that, you nearly gave me a damn heart attack! That was so stupid, is this seriously what you spent your money on?! That’s so irresponsible, and everything is so messy and it's too much, Zazzalil. YOu should be preparing for your midterms but instead, you think a better use of your time is to cover the apartment in cobwebs and pouring blood all over the floor to scare the ever-living shit out of me? What are you fuckin’ nuts?!” Jemilla didn’t notice the brightness leaving the other girl’s eyes until after she was done and took a breath before she was ready to continue. Zazzalil’s eyes were glassy with unshed tears and she crossed her arms over her chest protectively.

“I just thought-” 

“No, Zazzalil, that’s the problem, you don’t think. You didn’t ask all the roommates if putting up an obscene amount of Halloween decorations was okay, and you didn’t even give us a warning before you put everything up all over the apartment! And we’re still a week away from Halloween! You didn’t think about anyone but yourself, and you never do!”

“Jemilla, I-”

“Jemilla? Zazz?” The two girls turn their heads down the hall to see Keeri standing in the center of the living room. Jemilla hadn’t even heard her come in, shit, she probably heard them arguing too. Zazzalil took the opportunity and ran into her room, slamming and locking the door behind her. 

“Keeri.” Jemilla wasn’t sure of what else to say.

“Why were you yelling at Zazz? Oh! Did she scare you, she loves to pull those kind of pranks on people during Halloween. Last year, she turned our dorm into a giant coffin and hid in our closet to scare me. She jumped out and looked like a real zombie. Like, totally real! It was awesome.” Keeri continued to ramble on about Zazzalil scaring her until Jemilla cut in.

“Keeri! I was telling Zazzalil that she should have told everyone in the apartment that she was going to be putting up so many decorations for Halloween, especially with midterms right around the corner. I for one don’t want to be distracted by them while I’m studying in the kitchen.” Keeri tipped her head in confusion. 

“But, Zazz did tell us. Like, three days ago when she ordered them, she told me and Emblerly and- oh!” Jemilla saw the pitying look cross the dancer’s face before it was replaced by guilt. Keeri was a very easy person to read.

“What? What’s wrong? Kerri?” Jemilla strode across the floor, angrily brushing a fake cobweb off her shoulder.

“I mean, it’s nothing. Well, it’s kinda something… Zazzalil wanted to surprise you with the decorations as a way to keep you from getting too stressed about midterms. She didn’t want either of us to tell you because she wanted you to not know that was the reason she spent so much.” Jemilla was startled by what Keeri had said and was rooted to the spot, opening and closing her mouth trying to find something to say. From the corner of her eye, Jemilla could see Emberly sneak in through the front door and creep her way around them to the kitchen. 

“Zazzalil wanted to surprise me?”

“Yeah, but I guess it must not have worked because you were yelling at her and stuff.” Keeri nodded her head like it was infinite wisdom. “You should apologize to her.”

“Yeah, I know that, Keeri.” Jemilla resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her before walking back to Zazzalil’s door. Keeri, satisfied with her lecture, sat down on the couch.

Jemilla knocked on the door. “Zazzalil? It’s Jemilla. Can we talk?” She didn’t hear a response, but she heard the click of the lock being turned. Jemilla opened the door and stepped inside the room, closing the door behind her. For how excited she seemed to be about Halloween, Zazzalil’s room was pretty sparse for decorations. A bat-themed curtain hung over her windows and she had a stuffed ghost on her bed, which she was clutching like a lifeline. Shiiiiiiit. She must really have wanted to surprise me. 

“What do you want?” Zazzalil wouldn’t meet her eyes, looking down at her ghost. Jemilla sat at the edge of her bed and folded her hands in her lap neatly.

“I wanted to apologize for the way I reacted. I really shouldn’t have yelled at you like that and I really think that it was more of a reaction from you scaring me than it was about...what I said.”

“Yeah, you said some fucking mean things.” Zazzalil curled tighter into herself, practically in the fetal position. “I just like Halloween. I like scaring people, because typically when you scare someone they scream and then you both laugh. But I guess you see it as a way to fit in another lecture.” Jemilla knew that this was Zazzalil’s way of getting in a few jobs herself and tried not to be hurt by what she was saying.

“I know, and I’m sorry. I have been really stressed by all my classes lately and getting scared after an advisor meeting probably just added the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Zazzalil perked her head up slightly, looking Jemilla in the eye.

“Well, um, if you’re feeling stressed, I have a couple things that could take your mind off of it. Well, it’s for everyone really, but I bought those cookies with the Halloween stamps on them, and I downloaded Hocus Pocus. I was thinking we could bake them and watch the movie together and just relax for a night.” Jemilla was taken aback at how thoughtful the plan seemed. Maybe Zazzalil wasn’t as thoughtless as she assumed.

“Um, yeah, that sounds great Zazz.” The nickname rolled casually off her tongue and Zazzalil sat all the way up, her energy improving at the thought that Jemilla wanted to do something together. 

“Okay! I can get the cookies out and onto a tray, do you want to ask Emberly and Keeri if they want to join us?”

“Sure.” They stood at the same time and Jemilla swore she saw Zazzalil blush a little.

“Okay!” She darted out of her room and Jemilla followed. On her way down the hall to get to the kitchen, she passed Emberly, who smiled encouragingly at her. She laughed when she heard Emberly shout “Ugh, what is on the floor?! Is that blood? Fake blood?”

She and Zazzalil had a lot of differences, but they can work it out. 

**Author's Note:**

> The line "get fucked J-mills" was written at my work, so it's a very good possibility that the Dean saw me put those words on paper. Let me know what you think, kudos and comments are always appreciated!


End file.
